Hush (2016)

Deaf author Maddie Young lost her ability to hear and speak after contracting meningitis at age 13. The disease caused permanent hearing loss. Maddie lives an isolated life in the woods alone with just her cat. Her friend Sarah visits her one evening to return a copy of her book. Later that night, a masked killer with a crossbow attacks Sarah and chases her to Maddie’s house. A desperate injured Sarah bangs on the door shouting for help but soon later is killed by the mysterious masked killer. The killer quickly deduces that Maddie is deaf and decides to try and make her another victim. He sneaks into her house and steals her phone, which he then uses to take pictures of her and send them to her. Maddie realizes she is being stalked and tries to call the police, but the killer cuts the power and punctures the tires on her car to prevent escape. Maddie is now alone with no hearing ability or power to call the police for help. How will she protect herself? Will she escape the masked killer?

Reviews:

Catherine Gosswein, ’23: “I rate this movie a 9/10 because it was filled with suspense and I felt like I was hooked the whole time. This is a very good scary movie to watch during Halloween.”

Kelly Ferguson, ’24: “I rate this movie a 7/10. It was really good and suspenseful but I just wished it was a little shorter because it was really long.”

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Tim Burton’s ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ is set in Halloween Town. A place full of ghouls, ghosts, vampires, and all manners of frightful creatures. Every Halloween, the town throws a celebration that is conjured by Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King. But, Jack has grown tired of throwing these parties, and yearns for something new and different. On the day after his latest Halloween success, Jack wanders aimlessly through the forest and stumbles upon a circle of trees that each have their own portal to another holiday world. He is attracted to the one with a door decorated into the shape of a tree. He opens it and is immediately sucked in.

Jack finds himself in Christmas Town, where everyone is jolly and cheerful. Excited with what he’s seen, Jack returns to “HalloweenTown” to tell people what he has seen, and he makes the decision to take over Christmas from Santa Claus. The town’s people too are excited to do something new, but they only know how to scare, and make frightful things which is not the kind of stuff children would want for Christmas. Jack then assigns each person in town a task to get ready for Christmas. Sally, the ragdoll with a warm crush on Jack, warns him that his plan will end in a complete disaster, but Jack just ignores her. Instead, he has three of the town’s little brats kidnap Santa, where they throw him to the town’s evil man for safe keeping.
On Christmas Eve, Jack heads out and delivers presents to all the good little boys and girls in Christmas town. But the Halloween townspeople only scared the children. After many calls to the police, the military is sent to stop the Santa Claus imposter, and Jack is shot out of the sky. He falls to the earth, and lands in a lonely cemetery. He realizes his error, and sets out to find Santa to save Christmas.

Reviews:

Sonia Makowski, ’25: “I rate this movie a 9/10 because I really enjoyed watching the nightmare before Christmas, it being a stop motion made it ten times better and I loved the art style. It’s definitely a must-watch movie for the Halloween season.”

Gianna Bougainville, ’23: “I rate this movie a 8/10 because I really liked the art and has an interesting moral on teaching people that it’s okay to be yourself.”